Oral historian Marcie Cohen Ferris interviewed Selma Cohen on July 9, 2001 in Baltimore, Maryland as part of the Jewish Womenâs Archive "Weaving Women's Words" project. A devoted mother and wife and an influential saleswoman, Selma Litman was born in 1917. Although her father, one of the few Jews in Russia to have gotten a college education, died when she was just 20 months old, Selma was raised on stories that her mother and siblings regularly shared about him. As the youngest girl in the family, Selma was encouraged to pursue a commercial course of studies to prepare her for the work world. After working as a secretary, Selma married her high school sweetheart, Harry Litman, in 1940, and became the leading saleswoman in Sonia's Bridal Shop, her husband's family business. Sonia's provided Baltimore brides from many different ethnic groups with wedding dresses before becoming popular in the Jewish community in the 1960s. A devoted mother to Dana and Jeffrey, Selma balanced working at the store with caring for her children and managing an active household that included frequent entertaining and vibrant Jewish holiday celebrations. Selma Litman passed away on May 25, 2002. Selma Litman photo: Credit Joan Roth. Joan Roth's website

In the early 2000s, the Jewish Women's Archive conducted oral history interviews with 30 Jewish women living in Baltimore and another 30 in Seattle. Born in the early decades of the 20th century, these women lived through decades of political, social, and economic upheaval, as well as dramatic changes in expectations and opportunities for women. Doctors and lawyers, teachers and saleswomen, judges and social workers, homemakers and community volunteers, the narrators represent a wide range of backgrounds, affiliations, and experiences of American Jewish women. To find out more and to see the online exhibits based on this project, visit Jewish Women's Archive/baltimore and Jewish Women's Archive/seattle

The complete audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews are available on the Internet Archive.

This project was made possible in part by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Brenda Brown Lipitz Rever Foundation, and the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, Inc. In Baltimore, the project was a collaboration with the Jewish Museum of Maryland; in Seattle, with the Museum of History and Industry.

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